U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korea President President Lee Myung-bak, in a November 2010 file photo.

When U.S. President Barack Obama says or does something about North Korea, it gets attention in South Korea.

Wednesday’s papers in South Korea contain articles speculating on the meaning of the executive order Mr. Obama signed on Monday night U.S. time (early Tuesday Korea time) that underlines the U.S. ban on imports of goods and services from North Korea.

The order reiterates previous presidential directives made by Mr. Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush. In part, the order says, “The importation into the United States, directly or indirectly, of any goods, services, or technology from North Korea is prohibited.”

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It gives the U.S. Treasury Department, which has already pursued violators of previous U.S. and U.N. sanctions related to North Korea, the central authority to enforce the ban and contains no time limits for the pursuit of such violations.

The order came out as the U.S. Congress is taking up ratification of the free trade agreement the U.S. struck with South Korea in 2007 and modified last year. One of the ambiguities of that deal is whether the U.S. will accept goods from the factories of South Korean firms at an industrial park just inside the North Korean border at the city of Kaesong. In the FTA, the U.S. and South Korea agreed to settle the matter later.

In the U.S., some congressional and activist opponents of the South Korea deal raised the Kaesong issue in letters and hearings the past two months. One group, Public Citizen, linked the administration’s assessment of North Korea’s military progress and the money flowing to the authoritarian regime in Pyongyang via the Kaesong project. It said, “Given recent Pentagon defense assessments that suggest North Korea is within five years of strike capacity against the U.S. west coast, Congress and the public are rightly concerned with any policy that could provide further financial resources to the Kim Jong Il regime.”

In South Korea, the ratification of the FTA at the moment is being protested by farmers and their supporters who are trying to extract more money from the Seoul government to ease the burden they expect from increased competition with American food products. But the Kaesong issue looms as another stumbling block if manufacturers who operate plants at the facility insist on more assurance of access to the U.S. market.

The wording of Mr. Obama’s new order, along with an accompanying letter to Congress about the order doesn’t address the Kaesong matter specifically. But the order itself suggests that U.S. sentiment is strongly against acceptance of goods from North Korea, even if they’re made by South Korean firms.

Our Washington colleague Elizabeth Williamson asked the White House for comment. Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council, responded:

“For many years, imports from North Korea into the United States have undergone a review process to ensure that they comply with U.S. and international law, including sanctions regimes, and in the interest of foreign policy and national security concerns. Through this Executive Order, the Obama administration has taken steps to continue this process. The Executive Order neither strengthens nor weakens our previous restrictions on imports of North Korean products; it rationalizes the process.”